The sweet sorrow of parting (one week removed)...

To all the crazies out there still reading this blog,

I hope all is well in your life, family, home, or what have you. Things here are moving right along. I had a wonderfully full week of teaching at NPIC, and have even taken to tutoring three students on the side helping them out with their English language acquisition. They’re great guys, and I would tell you their names, but they’re rather difficult to pronounce and even more difficult to spell. So, let’s just call them Juan, Dominique, and Zissou…they’re awesome! So, that’s been a bundle of joy, and speaking of bundles of joy, Andrea’s sister Stephanie and husband Steve had their first child last night. Hooray!!! And, doubly speaking of bundles of joy, Andrea is doing splendidly in Thailand. I leave in exactly one week to join her, and am fairly certain that both of us are chomping at the bits to once again be together. We are hoping that Regan stays in her mommy’s womb until I can join them, but if she doesn’t, then I’ll just ground her. That’s what parents do, right?

Uh…what else, well actually, I have one quick, and rather funny, anecdote (for Dr. Funk). As an English department we gave our first test two weeks ago, so last week we were fervently grading and reviewing them with out students. One of the questions on the test was: “I play tennis, and I (fill in the blank) tai-chi.” The answer, of course, is “do,” I do tai-chi. What provided me with great joy and even laughter, were the answers I got: eat, drink, throw, drive, etc. It was straight up Mad Libs! Hmm, I just realized that this might only be funny to someone who has been living in Southeast Asia for six months. If you didn’t find this story humorous, then I profusely apologize. I got a kick out of it though.

Well, that about does it. I won my soccer game last week, yeah! And I have another one this Sunday. I have taken to playing left side defense (for those who care). Last week during warm-ups a little Khmer kid ran over to me and really wanted to help by working me out. So, we spent a good twenty minutes just kicking the ball back and forth. He was probably twelve or thirteen, but at about minute two, I fully realized he was way better than I was. Go figure!

As I said, I hope all is well. I miss you all, and can’t wait to either Skype are exchange emails with you. Be thinking of us as we both transition to Thailand, and subsequently parenthood.

Ben

PS-I refuse to mention that Florida won the national championship. I despise them and everything they stand for.